MIA
by Silverblacktears
Summary: Things are not right within SICON and for once it isn't up to the Roughnecks to solve things. Please R and R
1. Default Chapter

Chapter One - MIA  
  
Brutto stuck the data reader into its accommodating slot and clicked the button he needed - making sure that the casualty and MIA lists were downloading onto it. Whenever a new list was out, and up on the screen for general viewing, one of the Roughnecks would get the list and then check it for specific names that the others had given them. As he waited for the download, Max checked for his own friends, people he had known in boot, breathing a sigh of relief when he found none of them on there. Someone moved the list across to check names of their own and Max rounded on them with an angry scowl, when a name grabbed his attention - a name and a highly unusual, singular rank.  
  
BAXTER, ELLEN Tophetian Medic Specialist  
  
His fingers reached forward uncertainly, hoping to find out a little more, aware of T'Phai's friendship with the doctor and the computer enlarged her image. Her smiling face seemed so out of place, Baxter, Ellen besides her image and her rank was just to the side of her. Three letters flashed underneath her picture, M.I.A. He snatched at the now ready reader. He knew how much T'Phai would want to find out the information that he had gained - as he turned to leave two more words flickered up under her tag of MIA;  
  
PRESUMED DEAD.  
  
~*~*~ 


	2. Chapter two Without you

~*~*~  
  
Chapter Two - Without you  
  
The news Brutto took back to the barracks affected them all differently; Dizzy would not stop insisting that Ellen would be back but it was very hard to see if her gusto was for herself, if it was what she felt, or if she was saying it to help the others who were affected by it more.  
  
Rico made no sign of having taken in what had been said, but they all knew that he had volunteered to help find the MIA's rather then cleanup duty.  
  
Gossard and Doc shared a few memories but they had not known Ellen very well. Brutto too, was only affected by how much the others had been affected by her death. Zim had also not known Ellen but seemed to be holding a discreet silence around the others.  
  
The news had openly hit Higgins the hardest, he had been heard crying himself to sleep the night of the news, and he had written various letters and memoirs to himself. Notes about her life were sitting by his bed.  
  
The one being they had expected to emerge himself into some form of sorrow was T'Phai, yet as so far, he had done very little outwardly. It was very hard for him to be much quieter then he had before yet they had known him before when he had lost L'War in the same way.  
  
There were a few pieces of paper lying on the floor under his cot, all written in Tophetian and Zim would not take the papers and read what they said - the former drill sergeant had learnt the language whilst teaching in boot.  
  
No one thought until almost a week after the news had broken, to ask T'Phai why he was not upset by what had happened to his best friend; as the question was asked he turned to Max, who had been foolish enough to ask. "Ellen is not dead Max, she is missing, there is no cause for grief." Max nodded slightly, he understood that entirely - what was there not to understand. "I also feel that SICON is wrong presuming anyone dead."  
  
"Yeah, it's arrogant of them,"  
  
"No, not arrogant as such, it is not very well thought," He leant into Max more so that no one else could hear what he had to say. "You have seen the effect that two such simple words have had on Higgins, if you then consider the number of Troopers that would be affected in such a way. It does nothing for morale to have people know such things."  
  
The young man nodded his head, despite his initial very shaky start with the Roughnecks, he was now fine around T'Phai in the least, and the Colonel was a very sensible and agreeable person when the initial difficulties had been overcome. "Things are done differently on Tophet then?"  
  
It was T'Phai's turn to nod and he looked at Max directly. "We do not tell the person's friends and family that their loved one is presumed dead, they should ascertain that on their own."  
  
"I don't think Ellen's dead, T'Phai." The simple statement meant a lot to the Skinnie, it meant that he was not alone in thinking his friend had survived the experience.  
  
~*~*~ 


	3. Chapter 3 POW

Before I let you see the chapter I have to say a few things, firstly, DOH I forgot to put a disclaimer on the first chapter so I'll stick it on here - Roughnecks not mine, idea mine and new characters. Two, within this chapter there are some new characters, most of them belong to the people on www.roughneckchronicles.com and I've been given their permission to borrow them! ( Thirdly, thank you for the review and I assure you that I will post again here at some point because there's no reason not too and any one who feels like writing a collaboration with me is welcome too!! Temos_ren@yahoo.co.uk  
  
Pilotslover  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chapter Three - POW  
  
Ellen shook her head to clear the throbbing in it, failing dismally as the throb came back with a new tenacity, and the first thing she decided to do was look around her prison. It was small and black, smelt dank and seemed only practical as a prison. She heard the screech of patrolling warrior bugs and the moan of other people.  
  
She pushed herself up, becoming aware of the blood dribbling down the side of her head, her hand went to her kit bag should have been and she was surprised to find it there. With a great relief, she found that it had more then enough bandages to treat a whole MI unit; she pulled one out for herself and applied it to her head.  
  
Someone moved close to her, dragging her leg difficultly behind her, rather then let the poor woman continue to struggle on in that state she stood and moved to her, her head swirling in a disconcerting way. "Don't try moving," Ellen warned in a very warm tone despite the coldness and sparseness of her surroundings. "I'm afraid I haven't got a great deal of kit, I wasn't expecting to get kidnapped."  
  
"Me neither,"  
  
"My names Ellen Baxter, I'm a medic, as you can probably tell."  
  
The woman held out her left hand politely, her right held close to her body as if she had hurt it, "Laveda O'Connell." She introduced, "I'm not the only one injured in here." Ellen's eyes tried to adjust to the gloom and she spotted five other forms in the small cave, besides herself and Laveda. "I think most all of them are injured."  
  
The medic started to check over Laveda's arm first, the wrist had been broken but as soon as they got to a med bay that problem could be corrected. One look at the woman's knee proved to her that its kneecap was shattered. Then the real issue hit Ellen, why were they not in MI suits? She had gone out without hers, they were on Earth after all but MI still wore some armour, Laveda currently wore just the under suit. "Where are the powersuits?"  
  
"We must have been stripped of them,"  
  
"Your wrists broken, I can't do much for it here but I do have some mild pain relief and splinting materials, your kneecaps going to require corrective surgery but as long as we're back at a base within a few more hours I can fix that without any worries."  
  
Laveda thanked Ellen before pointing out each unit member, started with the most wounded. There were two men, each with breaks and bruises; one of them had a few broken rips that Ellen could not do much for, one woman had managed to get off uninjured but the final woman seemed to have taken her injury for her.  
  
The young woman, who Laveda had informed her was called Kai Roland, had a bug limb sticking through her shoulder. Ellen went to her next as the wound was still bleeding a fair amount. "Hey, I'm Doctor Baxter, I would like to look at your shoulder," Kai pulled away slightly, seemingly not wanted the wound treated. "Look, you've got an arachnid limb sticking through your bloody shoulder woman; just let me look at it."  
  
"What the hell can you do about it down here?"  
  
Kai's growl caught her out slightly, Ellen had had her fair of troublesome patients in her time as a medic and she swallowed the woman's question with imagined sugar. "I can bandage around the wound, make sure you don't lose any more blood, I'm not going to try taking it out, in case you're worried that it might hurt you!"  
  
Kai scoffed at her, and then her expression changed into a scowl. "Hurt me? If you were an MI, I'd have you in a headlock quicker then you can say pain relief." Ellen looked sceptical, her blue/grey eyes seemingly holding no apology for her comment.  
  
"I doubt that, do you want me to try to stop that bleeding or do you want to bleed out first?" Kai grudgingly let her look at the wound but there was nothing much Ellen could do for it. She bandaged it and injected a pain relief shot. "There, I'm going to have to get that wound treated when we're back at the base but it will be alright for now."  
  
There was a whimpering yelp on one side, Ellen turned to the whimpering young boy with a slightly worried look on her face. She could only see a little blood trickling from a wound on the boys head. "My arm, oh my arm it's terrible, help me!"  
  
Ellen rolled her eyes recognising his type at once, someone who would be moaning until she covered the wound. "All right private, do us all a favour, shut up!" Her tone was ordering and he did so all at once. She treated his wounds quickly and he stayed silent as she moved on, she had learnt that his name was Craig, yet his second name was beyond her.  
  
Standing and considering the wounds that the two men had taken she chose which to look at first, both of their wounds were closed fractures, so there was no issue of blood loss. She approached the closest one, "Hey, I'm Doctor Baxter." She introduced for the third time.  
  
"I heard,"  
  
Ellen squatted by his side, suddenly her head wound made itself known again, sending a spiralling sea of dots before her eyes. She groaned slightly yet the noise sounded distorted and miles away. Her head dropped forward for a moment as she tried to clear her head again. "You all righ' there beau'ful?"  
  
The comment brought her back swiftly, realising that the man was drunk. "You're drunk," She accused softly, ignoring the comment about her state and her head.  
  
"Life's better when you're drunk,"  
  
"Yeah, probably is," She could not help but agree with him, something in his manner made her agree with what he was saying. "So what do I call you?"  
  
He smiled at her, clearly thinking that it was nice of her to ask a drunken man what his name was. "I am the 'Insane one'!" Ellen gave him a look that made him sober up slightly, her face holding a look that any drill sergeant or teacher would be proud of. "Mobile Infantry Captain Ryan Thompson."  
  
"Thank you, where do you hurt?"  
  
He motioned his ribs, then his left leg, which bumped slightly over a possible splintered shin, and finally his wrist. "Been through the mill a few times then," She teased, she found that teasing people was the easiest way to gauge their patience and personality; Roland for example was a woman of little patience and yet someone who would rather suffer herself then let a friend do so.  
  
Laveda was patient, someone likely to try to struggle through things on her own rather then ask for help too much. She was also a friendly person. It was very hard to gauge a drunken man and she had not yet tried to speak to the others.  
  
"Could say that,"  
  
His good-natured comment proved one thing that she suspected - he was not that drunk! "I can't do anything about your ribs; I can splint your wrist and give you some pain relief. I'll look at your shin in a minute." She looked into his bruised face, "Your nose is broken but I can't do anything for that!"  
  
"Not again!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I've broken my nose so many time, maybe I should get it removed, then no bug can ever break it again!" Ellen chuckled slightly but the sound made her head spin again. "You're a nice guy Baxter, I like you, so I'll share something with you. 'You can't live a life with out having some fun, especially if you're going to die today, or tomorrow, or in the future'"  
  
"I suppose so,"  
  
She treated all she could of Ryan's wounds before standing and hunting down the last wounded man. "Sergeant Flowers," He told her before she could even introduce himself, he need not have told her that he was a sergeant; it was clear in his mannerisms. "I've a broken right arm, shattered left kneecap and a broken right shin."  
  
Ellen was taken aback by his quick self diagnosis, "Well there you go taking my job," She chided the American in a carefree, somewhat impudent way - she kept forgetting that not all Sergeants were as happy taking her teases as Brutto had been before. Flowers glowered at her, his eyes holding no form of comedy; she coughed in her throat slightly. "Right, sorry, how did you get these?"  
  
Slowly the look on Flower's face became less scowling and more open; she had made the careful guess that Flowers ; or indeed any sergeant, would have gotten hurt helping someone else - being a Sergeant seemed to be the most hazardous and self-sacrificing rank until the rank of Lieutenant. Her mind thought briefly of Razak, a very good leader and some one who had died before he should have - Ellen sighed, war claimed so many good people. "One of our privates was trapped and I went to get him from the bug mound we were about to blow. I was attacked in the mound and then again by the explosion on the way out, but the kid got out ok. Some bug must've grabbed me and brought me here."  
  
She nodded slightly, not wanting to disturb the head wound she had managed to get, continuing to splint up his legs as she did so. "I'll have to splint both legs together." She did so as he said that that would be all right with him. "I don't think there was any logic to their snatchings," Ellen told him as she did the task. "You've got me here and I'm just a medic."  
  
Flowers good hand reached to tap her shoulder and when he had tapped it once and taken his hand back she rose her own hand to see what it was, her 'rank' markings. "Just a medic?" He queried and she grinned slightly.  
  
She was one of only two SICON enlisted Tophetian medic specialists and the other one was a Tophetian. Ellen was singular, the only human to hold a Tophet citizenship and the only human to know more about 'Skinnies' then some of their own medics. She noticed the others drawing closer, Laveda looked at her shoulder markings, seemingly taking them in for the first time, Kai seemed to be thinking that it was typical that she would be treated by a non-human specialised medic, Craig looked wide eyed and Ryan just smiled. The final person in the cave walked up to them.  
  
"You're THE Doctor Baxter?"  
  
"Yeh,"  
  
The newcomer, who had spoken held out her hand to Ellen, and they shook hands. "I'm May Valentie, my friend W'Sal, speaks of you all the while." The doctor shifted slightly, she did not like a lot of attention and was feeling a little overcome by all the people focused on her.  
  
A bug patrol screeched again, and they all jumped ever so slightly; Ryan sobered completely, Flowers looked ready to spring on the bugs with just his fists and teeth alone, Laveda just froze to the spot and May moved towards the entrance slowly to check what was going on. Craig had frozen still, evidently afraid. Just as she reached the door five Warrior bugs entered, one for each of them. Strangely enough, nothing came to Ellen as she stared into the bug's black eyes, no thoughts, no profound last words and most surprisingly no flickers of her life.  
  
~*~*~ 


End file.
